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As the third most lively high-tech based city in the United Kingdom, Manchester not only excels in its manufacturing and start-up sectors, but also in its property market. Under the Northern Powerhouse initiative and a high speed rail, properties located in prime location are foreseen to rise in value. Golden Emperor Properties hosted the Insights into Manchester Property Market Seminar the past weekend to launch Crown Street, a luxury residence located in the prime location of Deansgate and developed by UK’s most prolific developers, Renaker and Select Property Group. The residence benefits from its impeccable location in Manchester’s CBD and shopping district, which received wide support from investors in Hong Kong.

Photo Above: Golden Emperor Properties Product Development Director, Ms. Cubie Chan discusses the advantages in investing into Manchester’s property market and its upcoming trends.

Photo Above: The two-day seminar received a wide amount of support from investors in Hong Kong.

Global wealth increased by 14 trillion USD last year – with China ranking second after the USA. Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report breaks down the world’s wealth and analyses the global outlook.

Our latest findings show that the world was wealthier in the past than our previous analysis indicated. New official statistical data and other reliable sources have led us to revise our estimate. The revision mostly relates to non-financial assets owned by the middle class.

China is now clearly established in second place

The main outcome of the new wealth valuations is confirmation of what many observers already suspected – that China is now clearly established in second place in the world’s wealth hierarchy. Another prominent feature of the world wealth outlook this year is the seemingly relentless rise in household wealth in the United States. Total wealth and wealth per adult in the United States have grown every year since 2008, even when total global wealth suffered a reversal in 2014 and 2015.

During the twelve months to mid-2018, aggregate global wealth rose by USD 14.0 trillion to USD 317 trillion, representing a growth rate of 4.6%. This was also sufficient to outpace population growth, so that wealth per adult grew by 3.2%, raising global mean wealth to USD 63,100 per adult, a record high.

Regional differences

The global mean wealth of USD 63,100 per adult masks considerable variation across countries and regions, as shown below.

Switzerland and Australia lead the pack

Switzerland (USD 530,240), Australia (USD 411,060) and the United States (USD 403,970) again head the league table according to wealth per adult. The ranking by median wealth per adult favors countries with lower levels of wealth inequality and produces a slightly different table. This year, Australia (USD 191,450) edged ahead of Switzerland (USD 183,340) into first place.

The infographic below illustrates the geographical imbalance in the distribution of household wealth. North America and Europe together account for 60% of total household wealth, but contain only 17% of the world adult population.

Wealth outlook: more to come

Global wealth is projected to rise by nearly 26% over the next five years, reaching USD 399 trillion by 2023. Emerging markets are responsible for a third of the growth, although they account for just 21% of current wealth.

Wealth will primarily be driven by growth in the middle segment, but the number of millionaires will also grow markedly over the next five years to reach a new all-time high of 55 million.

The proportion of global adults with wealth below USD 10,000 has decreased since 2000. At the beginning of the century, 80% of global adults belonged to this stratum: today the fraction is 64%. Our projections show it decreasing further to 61% in 2023.

Source: Credit Suisse

After 8 months of pending approval, the European Commission has approved Apple’s purchase of English-based company, Shazam, a mobile application which is known for its ability to identify music. The 8- month long investigation concluded that Apple’s acquisition of Shazam Music would not hinder market competition.

Apple announced its acquisition of Shazam in December 2017. Shazam has the highest amount of users among its competitors with downloads accumulating to over 10 billion. Apple has yet to disclose the acquisition amount, but sources from The Verge estimates the acquisition to value above USD 400 million.

The European Commission Chairwoman, Ms. Margrethe Vestager points out, information is only relevant to the economic status and the European Commission has carefully assessed the acquisition including the companies’ agreements and acquisition information. The officials of the European Commission said that investigation was necessary to ensure that competing providers would not be shut out of the market from competition.

The European Commission has launched an investigation of the acquisition in April as problem and concern arise that it could potentially disrupt the market and existing competition as Apple will be given access to sensitive customer information giving it an unfair advantage in the market. In the months of the assessment, the European Commission has concluded that Apple’s access to existing customer information from Shazam will not materially increase Apple’s ability to target uses and conduct any unfair competition impact.

The market believes that Shazam’s large customer database and technology will help Apple Music surpass other music applications such as Spotify. Shazam music has the ability to identify songs and music and be integrated into IOS and Siri to allow a smooth user experience. Shazam’s AR platform can also link to Apple’s ARKit and AR glasses. Until May this year, Apple Music and Spotify has acquired 50 million and 170 billion users, respectively.

Source: IT Home

Dyson will be joining a list of traditional and new competitors entering an increasingly crowded race to produce electric cars. Dyson, which began its business as a UK-based blow dryer and vacuum maker, has unveiled plans to turn a former airfield into a vehicle testing site. The company has reinforced its plans to become a unique competitor on the market and expects its first model to be on the road by 2021.

Dyson has invested 2 billion pounds into building a research center in the west of England near former Hullavington Airport to accommodate 2,000 staff and will additionally build an 16-kilometer long testing track at the research center.

Dyson’s dream of EV production since the 1990s

In 2015, Dyson bought US’s University of Michigan’s startup Sakti3 which produces solid-state batteries, with USD 90 million.

Dyson will focus on its battery production which is believed to be a central component to EV production. ‘We will manufacture our electric cars in the same city where we manufacture our batteries.’ Dyson’s CEO and Founder James Dyson stated that the company plans to invest 1.4 billion USD in the next 5 years into battery production technology.

The sudden change of Dyson’s business and manufacturing plans remains to be a surprise to the current market, however CEO and Founder James Dyson remembers that the initial idea of EV poduction occurred in 1988 where he marked the negative impacts made by diesel gas to human health in his thesis paper. In the 1990s, the company hired a team of experts to research into turbine technology used to filter out pollutants in car engines. In 1993, the team produced a mock model, but the experimenting idea soon vanished as the electrical auto market hadn’t appealed to the public.

2 billion pounds to target first production by 2020

In September 2017, Dyson announced that it will invest over 2 million pounds into designing and producing an electrical vehicle, unique to the current available market. Dyson has stated that it already has a team of top engineers and manufacturing experts in line with a research team of 400 employees to launch its first model by 2021.

In the beginning of the year, James Dyson revealed that all auto parts will be manufactured. Targeted towards high end buyers, the company will undergo a small production of about 10 thousand cars before it continues to build and establish partnerships with suppliers and battery production team to continue to launch two additional mid-class models.

 Test run highway & center for 2000 staff

Dyson has renovated the old aircraft maintenance center built in 1938 in Hullavington and will provide working space for over 400 employees. The next step is to build a 16 kilometer long test run at the technology center to test the company’s first model, which is expected to be on the road by 2021.

Source: Sina News

The Bolton Council of Greater Manchester announced on August 24th that Chinese contractor, Beijing Construction Engineering Group International (BCEGI) will lead the £1 billion Bolton Regeneration project as a major contractor.

Bolton, with a population of 280 thousand inhabitants and 13 thousand students, is reachable with a 12-minute train ride from central Manchester. The city’s regeneration project is estimated to take 10 years and developed in 5 phases: Trinity Quarter, Cheadle Square, Crompton Place, Church Wharf and Croal Valley, to accommodate 1,800 residential units to be completed by 2030 and create over 7,400 job opportunities.

Bolton Council leader Linda Thomas said the investment and the regeneration project is a huge opportunity to transform the city and its economic development. Bolton Regeneration Ltd, the partnership between Beijing Construction and Engineering Group International and Midia will begin the first phase of construction of Crompton Place shopping center to replace the town’s current Victoria Square, which already secured a value of £250 million of private investments.

Beijing Construction and Engineering Group International will lead the regeneration project and liaise between other companies and investors of the Bolton Regeneration project.

Beijing Construction and Engineering Group Intl has deep roots in Manchester:

BCEGI has invested into 4 major projects in Manchester including its newest project, Bolton Regeneration.

1) Manchester Airport Cluster

In 2013, BCEGI announced its £1.2 million investment into Manchester’s airport cluster city project and its partnership with UK construction company Carillion. Although Carillion declared bankruptcy in January 2018, construction and progress of BCEGI in the airport city project still continues. In October 2015, the airport city project was visited by Chinese President Xi Jinping and received a range of media coverage.

2) Middlewood Locks

In November, 2016, BCEGI partnered with UK Scarborough International and signed a contract of £8.5 million to become the major contractor for Manchester’s residential project Middlewood Locks’ first phase of construction.

Middlewood Locks is located in Salford, Manchester, with a surface area of 240 thousand square meters, a project valuing at £700 million. The project will undergo 5 phases of development, including 2,215 residential units, hotels, commercial space and retail and entertainment facilities. The project was to be one of the largest multi-usage project in UK. Middlewood Locks is invested by a number of overseas companies including China’s Hualing Group, UK’s FairBrair and Singapore’s Metro Holdings. BCEGI was named the top 10 foreign contractors in the UK after its investment into the Middlewood Locks project.

3) Manchester’s St. Michaels

St Michael’s is a multi-usage development in Manchester’s city center, including space for offices, hotels, residences and parks, valued at £200 million. BCEGI is the major contractor and investor of the project with a 21% holdings.

BCEGI is a second line contractor in China, but it has deep roots in Manchester’s market. In 5 years, it has received 4 projects and has shown its leading status on the international platform in mix-used development project and infrastructure development.